Fox News

Independents and Republicans are free to vote in next Tuesday’s Indiana Democratic primary – the latest do-or-die test for Hillary Clinton. And Independents and Republicans – along with a healthy dose of Archie Bunker Democrats and a scattering of masochistic liberals – also constitute the core of Bill O’Reilly audience. So, in a way, her appearance on his show Wednesday night was a logical exercise in voter outreach.

But that’s only if you ignore history.  read more »

The numbers are in for the cable news networks for the first quarter of 2008. The verdict? Thanks in large part to the nation's ravenous interest in the political season, Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC all enjoyed a strong first quarter, particularly compared with the seemingly dismal news coming from much of the rest of the industry. Today, employees of the cable news networks were falling all over themselves, trying to out-tout each other's accomplishments. Herein, some of the highlights:  read more »

On the morning of Friday, March 21, Chris Wallace woke up at his home in Washington, D.C., grabbed some fruit and yogurt, and turned on the Fox News early show, Fox & Friends.  read more »

Yesterday, Media Mob heard from several Times staffers about the Fox News trucks set up outside the Times building. Even though there's presumably less reason to have B-roll of the tower today, the Fox News trucks—and a weather-resistant canopy to protect cameras and reporters—are still there! So we sent trusty intern Matthew Townsend to the scene. Here's what he found out:  read more »

On Feb. 3, a k a Super Bowl Sunday, in an original News Corp. smorgasbord, reporters from FOX News will be teaming up with reporters from FOX owned and operated stations from around the country for a three hour broadcast event, focusing on—USA! USA!—presidential politics and professional football.

Shepard Smith, of FOX News, will headline the production from Glendale, Ariz., the site of this year’s Super Bowl. FOX News anchor (and Cincinnati Bengals fanatic) Bill Hemmer will contribute from New York, along with Fox News’ Megyn Kelly.

As the anchors toggle back and forth between discussion of the Super Bowl and Super Tuesday, they will chew over political dispatches from FOX Broadcasting reporters from around the country.  read more »

Apparently, John McCain got the enmity out of his system on Saturday night, because when the Republicans—sans Ron Paul—convened for their second debate in two nights on Sunday, the Arizona Senator was relentlessly diplomatic toward his main antagonist, Mitt Romney.

Time and again on Sunday, Romney—and the debate's moderator, Chris Wallace—sought to bait McCain into the kind of heated confrontation with Romney in which he repeatedly engaged the night before. But McCain, who has opened a small but clear lead in New Hampshire polls, met each attempt with smiles and shrugs, downplaying their personal differences and seeking to play the role of confident and self-assured front-runner.  read more »

The Fox News debate is underway and Ron Paul is nowhere to be found.

The broadcast began without an explanation for his exclusion and comes after a week of stonewalling by Fox, which refused to answer questions from the news media, the Paul campaign and even the New Hampshire Republican Party, which withdrew its sponsorship of the debate yesterday when it became clear that Paul would be left out.  read more »

Last time we heard of Rachel Marsden--the sassy conservative Canadian pundit and co-host of Fox News' late night show Red Eye--she was being escorted out of the News Corp. facilities, amid rumors that she was aggressively stalking an unnamed man.

This morning, some seven months after Ms. Marsden's sudden departure from FNC, the National Post reports that Canadian officials "have decided not to charge" Ms. Marsden "with stalking a Canadian counterterrorism officer with whom she had an affair."

"Ms. Marsden, a former Republican Babe of the Week who has appeared on Fox News and CNN, has a history of criminal harassment, having pleaded guilty to stalking a Vancouver radio host in 2004," reported the Post.  read more »

This is from over the wekend, but deserves some attention nonetheless, since it's a spat that's clearly not over.

Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul said Saturday that Fox News, which has excluded him from an upcoming presidential debate, is "scared" of him.

According to The Boston Globe, Mr. Paul told a crowd at a New Hampshire diner: "They are scared of me and don't want my message to get out, but it will. They are propagandists for this war and I challenge them on the notion that they are conservative."  read more »

A propos of the friendly argument I had last week with Portfolio's Jeff Bercovici over whether it's in Democrats' interests to appear on Fox News, I should note that Hillary Clinton was on Fox and Friends -- along with all the other major morning shows -- this morning.

So in this case at least, her campaign appears to agree with Jeff.

I have to politely take issue with Portfolio.com's Jeff Bercovici, who agrees with Chris Wallace that Democrats are wrong not to go on Fox News. Jeff writes:

Democrats don't avoid Fox as some kind of sop to the MoveOn.org crowd. They do it for the same reason they limit their press availability in general: because they're afraid of getting tripped up, caught in a flip-flop or a contradiction.

But this isn't quite right, in my view. It's true that, as Jeff says, Democrats are more likely to get tripped up during an interview on Fox News than on other networks. But they didn't start consistently snubbing Fox until liberal activists, led by watchdog groups like Media Matters, made it into an issue...  read more »

Fox News' Chris Wallace unloads to The Politico about the Democratic presidential candidates' refusal to appear on debates moderated by his network:

"Just imagine if the Republicans, under pressure from right-to-life groups, refused to appear on CNN or MSNBC. I think there would be holy unshirted hell. I think there would be such talk about these people being captives of the extreme right wing and why are they afraid to answer questions. And I think the absence of that is very telling.

"At this point, it has become kind of a loyalty test inside the Democratic Party, ... pandering to the far-left-wing. And we live with it."  read more »

Curious about how Fox News has covered this week's blockbuster news that, according to a National Intelligence Estimate prepared by the CIA, Iran shut down its nuclear-weapons program in 2003? This blogger has the run-down.

Short unsurprising story: They've hardly covered it at all, and when they have, it's been to question the report's accuracy.

Fox’s Ex-CNN-er has the last laugh.  read more »

Here's an interesting, insiderish theory from MediaBistro.com as to why Fox News may have turned on Fred Thompson, after appearing favorable toward the Law and Order star earlier this year.

Of course, this could have something to do with it, too.

Fox News' Shepard Smith -- who has offended some of the channel's conservative viewers by accepting that global warming exists, and expressing compassion for victims of Hurricane Katrina, among other apostasies -- has signed a new contract worth $7 million to $8 million a year, according to The Times. 

Roger Ailes calls Mr. Smith his "go-to guy" whenever big news breaks.  read more »

Is Mitt Romney deliberately trying to make an enemy out of Roger Ailes?

First, his campaign says it will defy a cease-and-desist letter from Fox ordering it to stop using footage from a Fox debate in its campaign commericals. Now comes the news that Mr. Romney won't participate in a planned GOP debate on Fox in Iowa, effectively killing the event.

Sure, everyone seems to think that Fox is in the tank for Giuliani. But it's strange that the Romney campaign seems to want to encourage the alliance.

It's no secret that Rupert Murdoch believes sex sells. Since buying the British tabloid The Sun almost 40 years ago, he's turned the Page Three girl into a cultural icon. And it's not hard to figure out how he plans to make a success of the Fox Business Network

Regular old Fox News, though, likes to present itself as an oasis of family values in an otherwise depraved media landscape. But a new online video makes a pretty compelling case that, while running stories that bemoan the increasing sexualization of our culture, Fox is taking the opportunity to show stuff—mostly girls dancing in bikinis, I watched it—that alot of parents would deem inappropriate for basic cable.  read more »

Chris Wallace, the host of Fox News Sunday, conducted a lengthy, exclusive interview with the former President that left every relevant question unasked.  read more »

When Rupert Murdoch’s visited the Wall Street Journal’s headquarters on Tuesday, not only were union flyers torn down in his honor, but there was another welcome surprise.

The flat-panel televisions on the 11th floor, where executives (and perhaps soon Mr. Murdoch) have offices, were tuned to Fox News.

“I had this sickening in my stomach,” said the staffer, “that the work we do would be attached to the work that they do.”

Typically, a Journal staffer said, the screens display either rotating shots from WSJ.com or the type of info-network (with news, weather, etc.) found in many Manhattan office buildings.

And while the televisions in the newsroom may still be airing CNBC, the launch of the Fox Business Channel is just over a month away.